Kings come all the way back to make a little history vs. Sharks

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, second from left, celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the San Jose Sharks during the second period of Game 7 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, April 30, 2014. (AP Photo)

SAN JOSE — After the “Miracle on Manchester” and “Frenzy on Figueroa,” what do we call what the Kings accomplished while improbably rallying from a three-games-to-none deficit to defeat the San Jose Sharks in their first-round playoff series?

Whatever it’s ultimately dubbed, it figures to live in the Kings’ lore for generations, that much is certain. The Kings etched their names in the NHL history books with a 5-1 victory over the Sharks in Game 7 and a 4-3 series win Wednesday night at the SAP Center.

Drew Doughty (power play), Anze Kopitar, Tyler Toffoli, Dustin Brown and Tanner Pearson scored for the Kings, who advanced to play the Ducks in the second round. Game 1 of the first playoff meeting between the erstwhile rivals is Saturday at the Honda Center.

It figures to take, what, maybe a nanosecond to bring to a boil?

“I think a lot of people were hoping this was going to happen, including the players,” Doughty said. “I think we’re really looking forward to this opportunity against Anaheim. I think they can’t wait to meet us as well.

“It’s going to be a hard-fought series. Fans are going to be great in both buildings.”

It might be the only way to top the Kings’ incredible first-round rally over the Sharks. The Kings joined the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders and 2010 Philadelphia Flyers as the only teams to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-7 series.

The Sharks won the first three games, including Game 3 in overtime at Staples Center. The Kings won the next three, including Game 6 on Monday at Staples. All things considered, a Game 7 was to be expected since these teams also went the distance in a series last year.

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How they got to this point was a surprise.

Or was it?

“We were down 3-0 in the series, which was obviously not where we wanted to be, but we never thought we were done,” Brown said. “I think what happened was that in the first two games we were very uncharacteristic. We gave more odd-man rushes than we did in the last month.

“We cleaned it up. We got better. That was the biggest thing. We got better every game.”

After playing the first scoreless first period of the series, the Kings watched as the Sharks took a 1-0 lead only 28 seconds into the second period. Defenseman Matt Irwin, filling in for the injured Marc-Edouard Vlasic, whistled a shot through traffic and into the back of the net past Jonathan Quick.

The Sharks didn’t score again and couldn’t keep the Kings from scoring. Doughty tied it with a power-play goal, his first of the playoffs. Kopitar put them ahead to stay. Toffoli padded the lead early in the third period and Brown and Pearson sealed it with empty-net goals.

“We were a lot closer last year than this year,” San Jose coach Todd McLellan said when asked about losing a second consecutive seven-game series to the Kings. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think it was close this year. We had a core group of guys who couldn’t get onto the scoresheet.”

McLellan didn’t name names in his postgame press conference, but Joe Thornton had only two goals and one assist and Logan Couture added one goal and two assists. The Kings shut out the Sharks in Game 5 and held them to a goal in each of the final two games.

The Kings’ best players, on the other hand, were their best players.

“We’re resilient, we have a lot of heart and it comes right from the top all the way to the bottom,” Doughty said. “We played very bad in the first two games of the series. Game 3 could have gone either way.